As some of you know my dad was in a pretty severe accident with his 1996 SSE, he is doing fine now with minimal pain and is already looking for a buick lesabre, park ave, or a bonneville.

I would have gladly gave him one of my cars but he did not like my prices and he ONLY wanted a buick park ave...well now he is broadening his car shopping search again.

I found him a 1996 SSEi sorta local to him with low miles at a decent price.

The only big problem I can think of is that the transmission is MUCH harder to come by since the particular version was only used in 1996 on the L67 cars..which was only the Park Ave Ultra, Olds LSS, SSEi, and the SE-SC (according to car-part.com)

Anything else I should know about the 1996 model year?

Andrew has a 99 PA that is gonna be pretty nice soon.

It will be over my dads pricerange by then

In my opinion, the 4T60E-HD Was FAR better than the 4T65-HD, these are just my thoughts though. Wouldn't be to worried about that, if it dies, have it rebuilt, used generally isnt a good choice

I agree based on troubles, that the 60 was less trouble than the 65, and holds the power VERY well.

The only difference is the valvebody. Move the VB from the 96 trans to any 92-95 trans and you'll be fine.

Verify that before doing it. The transmissions aren't that much different. Not plug and play, but not incompatible, either.

I'm on the other side of the fence. The 65 was redesigned from the 60 to fare better and usually outlasts the 60 in torture tests. The 65 doesn't eat cases like the 60 in the diff area either. No matter how you look at it..none of our transmissions were ever designed to hold up to any added power.

http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/...ic.php?t=41919

And the 60 holds up quite well in torture tests, especially in the 96 Series 2 L67, where you don't have the brutally low torque peak like the S1.

Travis nearly 300K and many trips to the drags with slicks
Mine 176K with tons of abuse
Ed McGrath with 175K and much abuse..
The list goes on.

As for the torque and abuse. The S2 makes the power and more, however until the PCM is changed, it is managed and held back.

Let'* agree to disagree which trans actually holds up better. I've thought the poll was a bit biased based on categories and the information that was being collected.

We all like our cars..let'* not turn this into a heated debate or an S1 vs S2 or a East vs West thing.

You're forgetting WHERE the S1 makes it'* torque peak.

And 3 65'* out of how many? Travis we know is original (or was). How sure are we that yours was? Ed'*? What if the OEM trans was rebuilt before either of you purchased the car?

In the experience of my trans builder, the 65 was the wrong direction. He firmly believes, based on a 3:1 ratio of 65:60 rebuilds during the 'transition years' that this is true.

So the question comes back to Hans' post. There'* no reason to doubt the capability of the 60E in a S2 L67. How many of those have we seen fail?

Hans, I am assuming your father will not be abusing the car so the 4T60 should hold up normally. The only thing I would recommend is to keep on eye on the transmisson temputares. My expierence is that these transmissons run hotter. I know the SSEi has a tranny cooler but I would still keep an eye on it.